In Game 4 of their first-round playoff series in San Francisco, Jimmy Butler III made a 14-of-27 points comeback from a one-game absence to help the Golden State Warriors defeat the Houston Rockets 109-106.
In the best-of-seven Western Conference gameup on Monday, Brandin Podziemski made six 3-pointers and added 26 points for the Warriors, who led 3-1.
Quinten Post had 13 points off the bench for seventh-seeded Golden State, while Stephen Curry had 17 and Buddy Hield had 15.
Fred VanVleet made eight 3-pointers for the second-seeded Rockets while Alperen Sengun finished with 31 points and 10 rebounds. Houston scored 17 points under the guidance of Men Thompson.
In the final second, the Rockets were able to tie the game, but VanVleet’s long 3-point attempt was off-target.
On Wednesday night in Houston, Game 5 will be played.
Due to a pelvic injury, Butler missed Game 3 and scored just four points in Game 4. The second half of the game ended up being better. He finished the game with 12 free throw attempts and scored all of Golden State’s final five points from the line.
With 58.7 seconds left, Butler made all three of his free throws to give Golden State a 107-104 lead.
With 40. 8 seconds left, the Rockets were within one with Sengun’s driving hoop.
With 6.4 seconds left, Sengun’s 11-footer was off the mark and off-balance for Houston. With four seconds left, Butler made two free throws before VanVleet airballed his shot to the end.
Golden State shot 41.9 percent from the field, including a 3-pointer from range of 17 of 46.
The Rockets shot 49% of their shots from behind the line, and they were 48% of their total. Steven Adams blocked four shots for Houston while Dillon Brooks added 11 points.
Before beginning the third quarter with an 18-1 run, the Warriors had a seven-point lead at half-time.
With 2 minutes, 35 seconds left, the Rockets scored the next seven points before finally knotting the score at 74 with Sengun’s basket.
Podziemski started the quarter with a 3-pointer as Golden State extended its lead to 82-80 heading into the final stanza. With 7:33 left, Houston scored 14 of the next 19 points before scoring Thompson’s basket for a 94-90 lead.
With 2:12 remaining, Golden State had a three-point lead before Butler added four points in a 7-0 run.
With one and a half minutes left, VanVleet then scored a third 3-pointer to make it 104.
Houston held a 57-point lead into the second half thanks to VanVleet’s 12 points in the first half. Before intermission, Podziemski led Golden State by 13.
Heat is swept by the Cavaliers in a record-setting blowout.
The Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA playoff game by a 4-0 first-round sweep with a 138-83 victory over the host Miami Heat, which is the fourth-largest winning margin in a playoff game. Donovan Mitchell added 22 points in a prior playoff game on Monday.
De’Andre Hunter led the way with 19 points, 19 rebounds, and 19 first-half steals, while Jarrett Allen added 19 and 19 points.
Bam Adebayo posted 13 points and 12 boards for Miami while Nikola Jovic had a career-high 24 points after missing the first quarter.
The first-seed Cavaliers advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals with a 6-3 victory, and the eighth-seeded Heat humiliatedly ended their season.
Miami’s biggest postseason defeat came with a 55-point advantage, surpassing the previous 37-point mark set for Game 3 two days earlier.
“We were humbled, but they [the Cavalier] had a lot to do with our appearance,” said Miami coach Erik Spoelstra. “None of us would have anticipated that this series would have ended up this way,” said one viewer. They only added more depth to the situation. These final two games left us without hope.
In the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, Cleveland will face either the Indiana Pacers or the Milwaukee Bucks. The Pacers currently lead their best-of-seven series 3-1.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply